


things in the wild

by chanwooya (sinoshi)



Category: UP10TION
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings, i cant remember what else to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:34:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28042500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinoshi/pseuds/chanwooya
Summary: When Gyujin asked for Yein's help, he didn't think anything bad would happen. Of course, things can get messy when you're fake-dating your friend. It's a disaster waiting to happen, but Gyujin has no choice. He just didn't expect the disaster to be Go Minsoo.
Relationships: Go Minsoo | Kogyeol/Seon Yein | Sunyoul, Han Gyujin/Seon Yein | Sunyoul
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	things in the wild

**Author's Note:**

> Commissioned by @toddlersun on twt
> 
> AAAAAAAA hnnnnn idk what else to say other than pls enjoy??????? my brain no think rn

“I need a favor from you.”

Gyujin grabs Yein’s arm before he can leave the table. He looks dead serious, so Yein sits back down. He was just about to go to the counter to pay for their meal. Gyujin’s usually not like this—he’s been uneasy the entire night, but he keeps on hesitating to talk. Yein can tell. They don’t even usually grab dinner without Minsoo—the three of them usually have weekly dinner dates—so that was already a red flag for Yein that Gyujin needed help with something.

Truthfully, Yein’s been waiting for Gyujin to say it all night. Gyujin only ever has one on one dinner dates with people when he  _ seriously _ needs to talk about something. But he waited until the very last moment to say it, which is also quite unlike him—he usually cuts straight to the chase.

“Sure,” Yein replies quietly. “What is it?”

Gyujin takes a deep breath and sighs. He looks down at their empty plates before looking up and saying, “I need you to date me for a month.”

“Huh?” Yein blinks once. Twice. Before letting out a nervous laugh. “What?”

“There’s this girl from my workplace that keeps bugging me. I told her I’m gay but I don’t think she believes me. So I need you to date me for a month and come pick me up everyday so she doesn’t drag me out to grab drinks after work everyday because I’m. So tired. I’m so, so tired, and I owe you a really, really big one after this.”

“Why… Me?” Is the first thing Yein asks after he sits there in shock for a few seconds. “Why not… Dongyeol, or Minsoo, or Changhyun?”

“Because they can’t act,” Gyujin frowns. “And I’m pretty sure none of them would be willing to kiss me if I asked them to.”

“And you think I’d kiss you?”

“You wouldn’t?” Gyujin’s eyes are wide and desperate. Yein feels kind of bad. But he needs time to think this through—a month is a long time. Plus, he’s not sure how the other guys would take this news. If they would even need to know at all.

“I’ll think about it, yeah?” Yein ends up saying.

“Hyung—“

“No, no, I’m not saying no,” Yein quickly pats Gyujin’s arm. “I just need to think about it. A month is…”

“It’s too long, isn’t it?” Gyujin smiles sadly. “I just don’t know how to throw her off. I tried everything, I promise.”

“I know that, I trust that you did your best by yourself already,” Yein nods sympathetically. “I’ll just think about it and we can talk about it again, okay?”

“I promise you hyung,” Gyujin grabs Yein’s arm again. “I owe you my life.”

Yein laughs. “Whatever.”

—

Yein has never felt so horrible before.

Sure, he’s lied to people before. He’s lied to his professor about his submitted file being corrupt when he deliberately did so to buy some time to actually finish the assignment. He’s lied about being sick before so he can skip choir back in high school.

But he’s never lied about being in a relationship to practically  _ everyone. _

Gyujin doesn’t seem to have any problems with it, though. In fact, he seems perfectly content with their arrangement. Sure, he’s the one who needs this—the coworker he was trying to throw off is hard-headed—but shouldn’t he be more… Concerned about how their friends would perceive this relationship?

“Why are you so worried, hyung?” Gyujin asks him, concerned, when Yein decided to ask him why he doesn’t seem bothered that they’re outright  _ lying _ to their friends as well, when there’s absolutely no reason to do so. They could just… Come clean and tell them this is all made up to throw Gyujin’s coworker off his back.

“How are we going to explain to them why we seem fine after we break up?”

Gyujin shrugs nonchalantly. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

That doesn’t help answer Yein’s worries at all. Mostly, Yein’s worried about Minsoo.

Minsoo’s been unlike himself the past few days—he’s refused invites to dinner multiple times, consistently. He usually only misses one or two a month. But he’s been missing  _ every single one, _ and Yein can’t help but think it’s because he and Gyujin are ‘dating.’

Honestly, if Yein were Minsoo, he would also avoid himself. He would probably think that he’s being secretive and not trusting, when Minsoo really, really values trust.

It sucks. But then he thinks about Gyujin’s situation and tries to understand his friend. What would he have done in Gyujin’s situation?

Probably the same thing.

Yein decides not to think about it too much.

—

Minsoo thought he would be fine.

And he was. He really was. He just needed a couple of days to process the shocking news that his best friend Gyujin and the person that he secretly likes (also his best friend, Yein) are dating. Just out of the blue.

It didn’t seem like they had any type of a special relationship. Minsoo always thought that Gyujin seemed closer with Changhyun, anyways. Once, when they were drunk at a freshmen welcoming party, Gyujin let Dongyeol kiss him on the lips a few times. But that’s probably different, Minsoo thinks.

You don’t always have to be close with someone to love them, right?

Still. He can’t help the shock he feels because he thinks Yein would trust him enough to let him know if he liked anyone. Plus, he thought Yein would immediately call him and tell him the news as soon as it happened, not a couple of days after the fact.

He thought the problem was trust. He thought it was because Yein didn’t trust him that he felt betrayed and hurt.

But now he thinks he finally realizes why.

Minsoo was just around the area of Gyujin’s office, walking home after meeting with some of his high school friends. Then he saw Yein waiting in front of Gyujin’s office building. He was just about to go say hi when Gyujin came out of his office, and then grabbed Yein and kissed him on the lips. When they pulled away, they held hands and smiled at each other, before Gyujin waved goodbye at who Minsoo assumed was Gyujin’s coworkers.

He doesn’t want to think about it. But the same scene plays over and over in his head.

The more he tries not to think about it, the more he thinks about it. And the more he thinks about it, the more his heart hurts.

_ That would have been me if I was just a bit more brave, _ he thinks. He doesn’t like the bitter feeling he gets when he looks at Gyujin and Yein. If he was unintentionally avoiding them before due to shock, this time, he intentionally does so.

—

“Minsoo’s avoiding us, don’t you think?”

Yein startles. Gyujin’s standing right next to him. He was spacing out looking at the pens in front of him while Gyujin took pictures for his instastory—as expected, his coworker sees it and replies to it angrily.

But yes. Minsoo’s avoiding them. Yein and Gyujin, specifically, because the other day, Minsoo went out to lunch with Sooil. Once, Yein also saw Minsoo and Changhyun hanging out when Minsoo said he was busy and couldn’t come see Yein, so he knows Minsoo’s  _ definitely _ actively avoiding him by lying to him.

Yein doesn’t know why Gyujin’s only noticed that now, though.

“You just noticed?” Yein asks.

“He lied to me yesterday,” Gyujin frowns. His eyebrows are furrowed and he pouts a little. “I asked him if we could grab lunch together. He said he was busy, so I asked Hwanhee and Hwanhee said he’s gonna be hanging out with Minsoo. Asked me to join them, too. I said no, though. I know Minsoo’s avoiding me for a reason.”

“Hwanhee,” Yein lets out an unbelieving scoff. “Minsoo and  _ Hwanhee.  _ He’s really avoiding us, now.”

“I can’t remember if I did anything to piss him off.”

“The fact that we’re ‘dating’,” Yein makes air-quotes on the word dating, “probably upset him. He probably thinks we don’t trust him.”

“Because he’s not the first to know?” Gyujin raises an eyebrow. Yein shakes his head.

“No,” Yein picks up a pen from the display in front of him. “It’s probably because he feels dumb that he didn’t pick up on the signs.”

“There were no signs,” Gyujin says.

“Exactly,” Yein clicks the pen, “which is why we should tell him.”

“I disagree,” Gyujin scrunches up his nose. “That would be a disaster.”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

Gyujin frowns. “It’s just one month. He’ll survive, right? We’ve only been fake dating for a week anyways. He’ll get over it.”

Yein hopes so. He doesn’t press further. He knows Gyujin has his reasons for not wanting to tell their friends. Plus, he’s right. It’s just a month. Everyone will survive.

—

Sooil doesn’t usually arrange ‘team dinners’ (as Dongyeol likes to call them) without any reason. He finds planning them to be extremely annoying since everyone’s schedules often conflict. When he does, he usually plans far ahead (their record is 3 months, when Sooil planned for Christmas dinner in early October) to ensure everyone can be there.

But somehow, miraculously, he managed to plan an impromptu one where everyone can participate.

In a little under 24 hours (a new record—when they planned a farewell dinner for Jinwook, Sooil planned for it 3 days ahead, because Jinwook didn’t tell anyone, and even then some of them still had to force it into their schedule) since Sooil planned it, in his tiny apartment, the seven of them are huddled around the small, low coffee table. Yein brought his famous  _ maratang _ today. The others brought side dishes and drinks.

Usually, the most important thing for Yein when he comes for team dinner, is to see his dish eaten clean. He loves the compliments he gets from the others. But today—it’s all about seeing Minsoo.

Yein hasn’t seen him since he told him he was dating Gyujin. That was about 15 days ago.

“Emergency meeting,” Hwanhee suddenly says before anyone can grab a spoonful of Yein’s  _ maratang. _ He slams his palm on the table. “Emergency meeting!”

“Can we do this after we eat please,” Minsoo sighs.

Changhyun pouts, agreeing with Minsoo. “The food is right in front of me!”

“No, no,” Hwanhee grabs his soda can and stands up. “I propose, before we eat, that the lovebirds make a toast and explain themselves!”

Dongyeol groans and leans back on his hands. “Hwan-ah.”

“No, no! Listen to me!” Hwanhee looks down at Dongyeol with puppy dog eyes. “Nobody  _ knew _ that Gyujin hyung liked Yein hyung!”

Yein sighs. Gyujin doesn’t say anything, and his hands seem to lose direction as he flails for a bit before deciding to put his spoon down.

“Okay fine,” Changhyun puts down his chopsticks and spoon as well. “I’m kind of curious as well.”

“Fine,” Sooil says. “Can one of you two just make a short toast and ‘explain yourselves?’ Shortly, please.”

Hwanhee grins brightly at Sooil. “Thank you, hyung!”

Sooil might look like he hates it, but Yein knows he’s playing favorites. Had this been Dongyeol, he would have been shot down immediately.

Yein looks towards Gyujin and with his eyes, he hopes that his emergency signal reaches Gyujin.  _ Please, don’t make me do this because I  _ will  _ fuck it up. _

“Okay,” Gyujin sighs after looking at Yein’s face. He grabs his beer can and stands up. Hwanhee, grinning in victory, sits back down and looks up at Gyujin with his excited puppy face. His legs can’t stay still—if he was a dog, this would be his wagging tail.

“I didn’t even realize that I’d been in love with Yein hyung,” Gyujin starts.

“Aww,” Changhyun coos. Dongyeol rolls his eyes next to Hwanhee, but he’s smiling. Minsoo and Sooil don’t seem to react, but Sooil’s the only one paying attention—Yein can see that Minsoo’s not listening. He’s looking at his empty plate, instead.

“It just hit me one day,” he continues. Yein thinks,  _ damn, he’s a smooth talker. _ Yein could never pull anything this good out of his ass. “That I really… Really like him. And it’s not the same type of feeling that I get when I’m with you all. It’s different. It’s special.”

Yein stops paying attention. It’s not the truth, but it still makes him uncomfortable. He doesn’t like lying to his friends. He doesn’t like lying— _ period. _ Had this been about anyone else, he would have rolled his eyes at the fake, obviously made-up cheesiness, but this is supposed to be about  _ him. _ About how Gyujin ‘loves’ him.

Yein looks at Minsoo. He’s looking down. Nobody seems to notice—everyone’s looking up, too focused on Gyujin’s little speech. Yein wonders why Minsoo doesn’t look happy for them like the others are, even when Yein knows it’s fake.

Still. He doesn’t want anyone to harbor negative feelings towards his ‘relationship’ with Gyujin. If it hurts anyone, he wants out. Or he wants to come clean. Whichever one would harm Gyujin and their friends the least.

“... So that’s how we started. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you earlier,” Gyujin finishes.

“That’s fair enough,” Sooil shrugs. “I get it.”

“That was so sweet,” Hwanhee says, grinning happily. “I’m happy for you guys!”

“Me too,” Dongyeol agrees. Changhyun nods along.

“Should we make a toast?” Gyujin raises up his beer can. Yein grabs his own cola can, but before he can raise it up with the others, he sees Minsoo stand up.

“Sorry,” Minsoo says. “Could you excuse me for a second?”

He walks towards the bathroom. Before Yein can register how confused everyone looks, he says, “I’ll go after him.”

—

After abruptly standing up and squeezing Gyujin’s shoulder, he follows Minsoo to the bathroom.

Sooil’s bathroom door doesn’t lock. He has an irrational fear of getting locked in the bathroom and not being able to exit since he lives alone and tends to not bring his phone when he showers, so he removed it. Minsoo usually laughs about it, and the others usually complain about having to fear someone walking in on them doing their business in Sooil’s toilet.

Still. Yein knocks softly. He can hear the sink running inside, like Minsoo’s washing his hands.

“Yeah?” Minsoo calls out.

“Can I talk to you?”

There’s no answer for a few seconds. The sound of running water stops. Yein doesn’t even know what to say. He hasn’t really planned anything. He doesn’t even know why Minsoo walked out on them. Did he really feel  _ that _ betrayed? Why didn’t he say anything? Why did he avoid them? At the very least, Yein wants to know why Minsoo’s avoiding him and Gyujin.

“Sure.”

The door opens slowly. Minsoo’s there, and he looks fine. Yein can hear the whispering behind him. The others are definitely talking. He hopes Gyujin can handle it, somehow. He feels sorry for ditching Gyujin.

Yein comes in and closes the door. He stands in front of it just to block it, in case anyone tries to enter. He stands there for a while, looking at Minsoo.

“I’m sorry,” unexpectedly, Minsoo starts first. Yein blinks up at him.

“Huh?”

“Isn’t that what you wanted to hear?” He asks. “I’m sorry for walking out on you guys like that. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Then why’d you do that?” Yein asks.

Minsoo doesn’t say anything. Five, ten seconds pass. Minsoo stays rooted to his spot, looking anywhere but Yein.

“Why’d you do that, Minsoo?” Yein repeats. “Why are you avoiding me and Gyujin? What did we do to you?”

“I’m sorry,” Minsoo repeats.

“No, stop saying sorry,” Yein sighs. “That’s not what I wanna hear from you.”

The silence between them is terrifying. They can’t hear the others outside. They can’t hear water dripping. The bathroom fan isn’t on. Minsoo keeps quiet, but Yein’s not leaving before he gets his answers.

“We can stay here all night. I have time,” Yein says.

“Even if we stay here all night, I don’t think I can tell you.”

“Well, then I can stay  _ forever.” _

Minsoo looks at Yein, and Yein’s never seen this expression on him before. He doesn’t know what it is. Hurt? But why?

“Let me help you then,” Yein sighs again, louder this time. “Is it because you think I don’t trust you? Gyujin doesn’t trust you? That you’re not the first to know about us? Or is there some other reason that we’re completely missing, because—I don’t want anyone feeling hurt because of us.”

Minsoo bites his lips, and only then does Yein notice—he’s holding back tears.

_ Fuck. _

“Fuck,” Yein breathes out. The fight slowly leaves him.

He feels… Terrible.

“Even if I tell you,” Minsoo’s voice is low, almost a whisper. If it wasn’t so quiet, maybe Yein wouldn’t have heard it clearly. But he hears Minsoo, clear as day, like he’s talking normally. “I don’t think there’s anything  _ you _ can do about it.”

Sometimes. Just sometimes. Yein wants to be a little bit slower at picking up things.

“Oh,” Yein’s voice is just as quiet.

He hates that he gets it. He hates that he understands what Minsoo meant to say. He hates that now, he knows how Minsoo feels about  _ him. _

“I’m sorry,” Minsoo looks down at his feet. Yein has never felt more horrible than right now, right this second, as Minsoo moves past him to leave the bathroom.

—

The atmosphere changes completely. Minsoo smiles and tells them he’s fine, that he just felt a little sick because he ate something wrong, but Yein thinks everyone knows that they ‘argued’ in the bathroom.

They end it quicker than usual. Hwanhee and Dongyeol leave in a rush. Changhyun leaves shortly after them. When Minsoo’s about to leave, Sooil holds him back and asks him to stay the night, and Yein feels terrible because he knows Sooil’s probably going to tell him off for acting like an asshole.

Gyujin and Yein leave together. As they walk alongside each other, it’s awkward. Yein doesn’t know what to tell Gyujin. If he should even tell Gyujin at all—it’s not his place to do so, after all.

Gyujin probably sensed that Yein’s thinking hard. He says, “I can hear the gears in your head moving.”

Yein laughs, empty and emotionless.

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” Gyujin says. “If it doesn’t have anything to do with us—“

“I just…” Yein lets out a long, sad sigh. “I don’t think we should keep lying to them.”

Gyujin doesn’t say anything for a while. Then, he turns to Yein and asks, “so did you tell Minsoo hyung?”

Yein shakes his head. “I couldn’t.”

Gyujin doesn’t reply. They walk in silence all the way to Yein’s apartment. Outside of the apartment building, they see Yein’s roommates, Seongri and Seokjin, taking out the trash. Yein once said, when the others asked about why it  _ has _ to be two people taking out the trash, that it’s because it’s heavy. The three of them cook a lot and oftentimes snack on convenience store food, producing lots of food and packaging trash. Changhyun complained that their lifestyle probably isn’t eco-friendly. Yein said they’re too busy to care.

Gyujin walks Yein all the way to where Seongri and Seokjin are standing, waiting for Yein as soon as they spot them walking towards the building. He says a simple ‘bye’ and heads home.

Yein’s roommates tease Yein about Gyujin’s awkward, dry ‘bye’ for a while before noticing that Yein’s not in the mood to joke with them. They elbow one another and whisper about Gyujin and Yein probably having a  _ real _ argument. They stop the teasing, and they leave Yein alone.

After Yein’s shower, he sees a cup of warm tea and a slice of sponge cake on his desk. Next to it, a purple post-it—Seokjin’s. Though, the handwriting is clearly Seongri’s.

_ Yein, _

_ Have some tea before you sleep. _

He doesn’t know why. But he cries when he sees it. Maybe he really does feel horrible about today.

—

After everyone leaves, Sooil drags Minsoo into the kitchen. He doesn’t have to, since nobody’s there, but Minsoo lets himself get dragged in anyway. He knows the drill.

“I need to talk to you,” Sooil starts. He hasn’t looked this serious since forever. Minsoo can’t remember the last time he’s seen this side of Sooil.

“Okay,” Minsoo sits down on a kitchen stool. Sooil leans back on the counter, facing him. His arms are crossed, and he looks like he’s thinking.

“Gyujin said you’ve been avoiding him and Yein.”

Minsoo slowly nods. “Yes. That’s true.”

“After seeing how you acted today, I think you owe everyone a better explanation than the bullshit you told us earlier. I want you to be honest. Why’d you do that?”

“I’m sorry,” Minsoo repeats what he’s said hundreds of times today to everyone at the dinner. But Sooil tilts his head at him.

“Why are you apologizing to me?”

“I’m sorry for ruining your dinner,” Minsoo says.

“It’s not my dinner,” Sooil frowns. “Minsoo, why’d you do that to Gyujin and Yein?”

“I already apologized to Yein.”

“I know,” Sooil raises an eyebrow, sighing. “We all know. I wanna know  _ why, _ Minsoo.”

Minsoo bites his lips. There’s no reason he shouldn’t tell Sooil. Sooil’s trustworthy. He keeps his mouth shut. Plus, he deserves an explanation. Minsoo feels like he’s made Sooil go through a lot.

“I couldn’t even tell him,” Minsoo starts. He hates the heavy feeling in his chest and the sting in his eyes. He looks down, avoiding eye contact with Sooil. He takes a deep breath, and counts the bananas on his socks. Four, five, and then he lets out a long sigh. “How could I?”

Sooil doesn’t say anything. It’s quiet, again, save for the hum of Sooil’s old, clunky refrigerator.

“He looked so happy.  _ They _ looked happy. When I saw them outside, they seemed really…” Minsoo sighs again. “Really happy.”

When Minsoo doesn’t continue after a while, Sooil quietly asks, “are you jealous?”

“Yes,” Minsoo answers. “I felt terrible when I thought,  _ if only I didn’t wait for a sign. If only I wasn’t a coward.” _

“Still,” Sooil’s calm, level voice makes Minsoo feel like a scolded child instead. “You shouldn’t have left like that. They’re your friends.”

“I know,” Minsoo bites his lips hard. “I know, hyung.”

When Minsoo starts sobbing quietly, Sooil pats his back and hugs him. It feels warm, but Minsoo feels even worse—after all that, he doesn’t think he deserves Sooil’s kindness.

—

Everything is quiet for a few days. For Yein, it feels quiet, anyways. Gyujin doesn’t contact him. Neither does Minsoo or Sooil. The others occasionally text the group chat, but everyone can feel the strange tension.

Yein feels bad. It all feels like his fault. He shouldn’t have lied to anyone. He should have just been honest that it was all a lie to throw Gyujin’s coworker off, then maybe things wouldn’t have been so bad.

Yein drowns himself in work. He pretends to be fine in front of his roommates, but he knows they know that he’s not fine. That something’s wrong. Seokjin asks him if he’s fine everyday, but they all know neither Seokjin nor Seongri can do much about whatever Yein’s going through.

The last person Yein expects to show up at his door is Lee Changhyun.

“How’d you get in here?” Is the first thing Yein says when he opens his bedroom door. Changhyun’s standing there, like nothing’s wrong.

“Your roommate let me in!”

Yein grumbles before letting Changhyun in. His friend drops himself on Yein’s bean bag and closes his eyes.

“Is something wrong?” Yein asks. Changhyun doesn’t usually visit anyone unannounced. Yein can’t help but think something horrible happened, but seeing how Changhyun doesn’t look upset, he’s probably here for another reason.

Changhyun opens his eyes. “I heard a little something from a little someone.”

“Uh huh,” Yein crosses his arms and nods. “And who and what would that be?”

“A little bird named Han Gyujin made a confession.”

Yein can guess what it is. His heart drops to his stomach. The first thought that runs through his head is,  _ how is Minsoo gonna react to this? _

“That you and him aren’t actually dating.”

What changed Gyujin’s heart?

“I’m sorry,” Yein automatically blurts out. “I lied to you all.”

“That’s not important,” Changhyun sits up straight. “I heard everything from Gyujin. What’s important is, how do you and Gyujin plan to fix this?”

Yein gulps. “I actually… I haven’t talked to Gyujin since.”

Changhyun raises an eyebrow. “Well, you should. I don’t know who else he decided to tell, but I think you both need to talk to Minsoo, even if he already knows. He wouldn’t tell me what happened. I asked Sooil but he says it’s not his place to tell, but I can kinda guess. He likes one of you, right?”

“I don’t know how I feel about that,” Yein confesses. “About Minsoo.”

“So it’s you,” Changhyun nods. “He likes you.”

Yein shakes his head. “I don’t wanna talk about that.”

Changhyun doesn’t press further. Yein can’t tell if it’s because he doesn’t know what to say, or if it’s because he’s trying to give Yein space to think. Either way, he appreciates it.

After a while, though, Changhyun speaks up. “You know. I think he shouldn’t have reacted that way.”

Yein nods, but he still feels bad, anyways.

“If you missed your chance, then you missed your chance. But you know that.”

“Yeah.”

“I know forgiving him is hard. But you and Gyujin need to talk to him. I don’t think we can survive another situation like this.”

Yein knows. He  _ knows, _ and that’s why he feels so bad. There’s a reason why Sooil held Minsoo back after dinner that day. There’s a reason why everyone not directly involved  _ knew _ to leave early, but that’s a story Yein doesn’t like to reminisce about.

“Even if it doesn’t end well. I think we should all face it head on. Doing nothing isn’t going to fix anything.”

Yein nods. He lets out a shaky breath, before Changhyun suddenly stands in front of him and holds him by his cheeks.

“Don’t cry,” Changhyun frowns. “I don’t know what to do when someone cries.”

“I’m sorry,” is all Yein can manage before he starts crying.

“It’s okay,” Changhyun hugs him.

—

“Can we talk?”

Gyujin is startled out of his thoughts when he feels a light tap on his shoulder. He almost drops the book he was holding (thankfully, he doesn’t, because the librarian is  _ definitely _ looking at him right now), and he turns around to see who it is.

Unexpectedly (though he doesn’t know why he didn’t expect them at all—he should have, considering what happened, and considering how he’s been putting off replying to their messages), Minsoo and Yein are in front of him.

He nods, putting the book away and following the two of them out the library.

Truthfully, Gyujin knew from the very start that Minsoo likes Yein.

That’s why he feels so bad. But he really, really couldn’t think of anyone who would be believable enough yet willing to fake date him for a month. His coworker was starting to cross lines—threatening him and harassing him. The worst thing was that HR was unwilling to do anything about it because she’s some hotshot investor’s daughter. They couldn’t afford to lose the investment they were getting, so they told Gyujin to just ‘hang on’ because she’ll get bored soon, anyways (that still hasn’t happened). And obviously, quitting was just something he couldn’t afford yet.

As for not telling the truth to their friends? He thought it would minimize any slip-ups in their friend circle. After all, his crazy coworker kept an eye on all of his friends, as well.

He follows the two of them out the library and down towards a park nearby. He doesn’t even know how they knew he was at the local library. But it’s probably not hard to guess, especially since everyone knows he spends his weekends going to the gym, eating, and browsing books at the library.

Minsoo finds an empty picnic table for them, and Gyujin and Yein sit in front of him.

Gyujin doesn’t know what to feel. He  _ knows _ this is all his fault, but he just can’t find the words to express just how terrible he felt about the whole thing.

“I’m sorry,” Minsoo starts. “I wanna start with that. I shouldn’t have left like that at dinner. I should have set my feelings aside, and I shouldn’t have hurt you both.”

Gyujin fidgets with his sleeves nervously. In front of him, Minsoo smiles, small and shaky. “I’m happy for you guys. So I’m sorry. I’ll be okay.”

Gyujin doesn’t know how to respond to that. Next to him, Yein is looking at him expectantly, but honestly, Gyujin just doesn’t know where to start.

It had been easier talking to Changhyun about it. He wasn’t directly involved. He doesn’t have feelings for anyone involved. But Gyujin  _ knows _ that Minsoo has feelings for Yein, and he knows why Minsoo reacted that way, even before Minsoo said anything. It’s different. It’s different, because he feels responsible for the whole thing—for doing this to Minsoo and Yein.

“I should be saying that,” Gyujin says after a while. “I don’t know where to start. I’m sorry.”

He looks at Yein, then at Minsoo.

“I feel horrible for saying this, but me and Yein aren’t a real thing. I asked him to fake date me for a month to throw this crazy coworker off my back. But well,” he shrugs. “You know what happened after that.”

Minsoo only looks slightly surprised. But the news doesn’t immediately make him relax.

Yein sighs next to Gyujin. “I told Gyujin we should just come clean to you guys. You were avoiding us, so I thought you felt betrayed that I didn’t trust you enough or something.”

“I’m sorry for that, too,” Minsoo quietly says.

“I’m sorry,” Gyujin takes a deep breath. “Hyung, I knew you liked Yein hyung even before all this. I should’ve listened to Yein hyung and just told you guys the truth.”

Minsoo looks surprised, but immediately shakes his head. “No, I get it. Hwanhee would definitely spill this secret somewhere else, whether he meant to do it or not.”

Yein laughs. So Gyujin does as well. Minsoo only smiles at them.

“Let’s just forget about it, okay?” Minsoo looks at Gyujin, then at Yein. “I don’t want to make things weird between all of us.”

“I don’t wanna make you upset, hyung,” Gyujin frowns. “I think you and Yein hyung need to talk after this, if you haven’t. I don’t want you guys to just skip over Minsoo hyung’s feelings like that.”

Minsoo smiles at Gyujin weakly. “It’s fine.”

“No, yeah,” Yein shakes his head. “We should talk, Minsoo.”

Minsoo nods, resigning to his fate. Whether he likes it or not, Gyujin is right. He and Yein need to talk. Properly this time.

“Okay,” Gyujin claps once. “Well. Let’s not be upset for too long. Let’s all agree to forgive each other and let’s all agree that we all did something wrong. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go back and actually borrow some books.”

—

They don’t immediately talk after Gyujin leaves that day. Minsoo asked Yein to give him some time to sort his thoughts and his feelings out. Yein told him not to worry too much.

That was a few days ago, now, and Minsoo doesn’t think he’ll ever be ready, so he decides to face the music and talk to Yein.

They’re sitting at a cafe near Yein’s apartment. It’s slightly crowded, but Minsoo kind of prefers it that way. He doesn’t think he can handle any type of silence. At least this way, they’ll have some background noise.

Yein’s sipping on his strawberry macaron latte (that looks way too sweet), and Minsoo’s absent-mindedly stirring his iced americano with the straw.

“So…” Minsoo starts, but he trails off and doesn’t continue.

“So,” Yein instead starts for him. “This is awkward.”

“I’m sorry,” Minsoo sighs. This feels like the hundredth time he’s said sorry to Yein. “I didn’t mean to make things awkward between us. I didn’t even realize how much I liked you until… You know…”

“I don’t want us to become awkward either,” Yein says. “Listen. It’s not that I don’t like you—I do! I do like you and I care for you, Minsoo. But I need to finish this thing with Gyujin first before we can really do anything about… Us. It’s just for another week or so.”

“I understand,” Minsoo nods. Then, after a while, he shakes his head. “Wait, no, I don’t understand.”

Yein smiles at him. “If you want. We can try something after I’m done with Gyujin’s little project.”

Minsoo stops stirring his iced americano. “Okay…”

The small giggle Yein lets out makes Minsoo feel butterflies in his stomach—for the first time in forever. He doesn’t even realize that he’s smiling dumbly at Yein.

“But we’ll just take it slow, right? I don’t wanna make things worse. Truthfully, I’m scared.”

“Me too,” Minsoo agrees. “I don’t wanna mess up and make things worse. Honestly, if you didn’t say anything, I would have just said to forget about my feelings and I’ll try and wrap things up by myself. I value you too much as a person, and I don’t wanna lose you. Or the others.”

“But Gyujin’s right. I can’t just skip over your feelings like that. I knew you’d tell me to forget about it, so I thought about it myself, and I think it won’t hurt to try with you,” Yein holds out his hand awkwardly. “So promise me we’ll try and not fuck this up?”

“I’ll try my best,” Minsoo takes Yein’s hand, and they do an awkward handshake. Minsoo laughs, and Yein laughs as well.

“Well, this is bad,” Yein says after he pulls away from their handshake. “Wanna grab some food instead?”

Minsoo nods. “Sure.”

Maybe things would go back to normal if they had food in their stomachs.

**Author's Note:**

> can u tell i picked it up and put it back down HUNDREDS of times LMAO forgive any awkwardness... also if u spot any holes lmk pls my brain is dead rn thanks for making it this far


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